Sony PSP Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles Boss Rush (with Maria) FAQ by bellaluna888 Copying ======= Feel free to copy, repost, and modify the contents of this document as you wish. I doubt I'll ever update it, and I sure won't bother policing what happens to this file. I recommend using the GameFAQs message boards if you have any unanswered questions. If you want to suggest radically new strategies or improvements, please write your own FAQ. Introduction ============ The goal of this document is to help you complete the 3 different boss rush modes in the easiest, most reliable (definitely not in the fastest or most skillful) manner, to unlock the songs and extra stuff at the end of each rush. Specials are often abused to ensure victory. General principles and definitions ================================== In every case, I am using Maria. The primary reason for this are her "item crashes" (animal crashes??), which I will call "special" from now on. Generally speaking, my strategies involve using a special to deal fatal damage to the boss in question. Sometimes, the special will not guarantee a one hit KO. Then, attempt to first damage the boss as much as you can by only using the regular attack, and use the special either when you are low on health (under 33%), or once you are sure the boss will go down with the special. IMPORTANT: Do not needlessly waste hearts against any boss, except the last one. The strategies I'm giving are meant to get you through the whole boss rush, NOT any one single boss. The specials take up many hearts each time and it's necessary to conserve them. Unless you already have 99 hearts, collect every heart available. I will call the six items that Maria can use: 1. Bird or Suzaku. Special: Bird hovers in the air while meteors rain down. 2. Dragon or Seiryu. Special: Dragon flies multiple times across the screen while lightning strikes. 3. Turtle or Genbu. Special: Turtle flies quickly once across the screen. 4. Cat or Byakko. Special: You ride a giant cat, which runs back and forth through the screen. 5. Music book. Special: Notes cover the top 25% of the screen horizontally. 6. Egg. Special: Small birds fly quickly through the screen (never used) The regular attack, I will call doves. Each Boss section will be formatted as follows: Order of appearance (#) and name -------- Item needed for battle: one of the six items listed above. Heart count before going in portal: a number, or some numerical range, that you should aim to have. Importance of Item: one of the following qualifiers: - never used: do not activate item to conserve hearts. The regular attack is more than enough firepower to defeat the boss. - slightly helpful: boss is easy enough to beat without the item, and using the item does not deal very much damage, but may have better reach than the regular attack. - helpful: boss is easy enough to beat without the item, but using the item or the special greatly diminishes the time needed to defeat it. - crucial: boss battle is very difficult or time consuming without having the suggested item AND minimum number of hearts needed to use it in the manner described. Strategy: paragraph(s) describing in some detail what you need to do, and possibly avoid doing. Boss Rush Normal ================ Boss Order ---------- 1 Wyvern Turtle 33 2 Werewolf Bird 61 3 Minotaur Dragon 50+ 4 Dullahan Cat 25-40 5 Death Bird 25-50 6 Shaft Dragon 50+ 7 L. Vampire Dragon 50+ 1 Wyvern -------- Item needed for battle: Turtle (to get 5 hearts from next round's leftmost candle) Heart count before going in portal: 33 Importance of Item: never used Strategy: Keep the wyvern within the doves' attacking range, and simply double jump repeatedly and attack it with the doves. Even if you lose, no big deal, since it's the first battle. Do NOT squander any hearts here. They are far too precious to be wasted on this puny boss. 2 Werewolf -------- Item needed for battle: Bird Heart count before going in portal: 61 Importance of item: slightly helpful Strategy: Most of the attacking will be done with the doves. The birds help you reach the wolf when he's in the roof, and if you're about to die, use the special to grant you invincibility and damage the wolf at the same time. If he crouches, it means he's about to slide at you. Jump over him. He also has a flaming diagonal attack, which I'm not too sure how to dodge. Any time he is flies off the wall or ceiling at medium speed as a round-shaped fireball, he is not invincible, so attack him to get him out of that form. In any case, you should defeat the wolf with at least 27 hearts left. Attempt to avoid the wolf's final desperation attack. 3 Minotaur -------- Item needed for battle: Dragon Heart count before going in portal: At least 50 Importance of item: crucial Strategy: Use the special as soon as the battle begins. With any luck, you'll have a dead minotaur; at worst, one with a sliver of health left. Attempt to dodge his final slide-shoryuken desperation attack by double jumping over him. 4 Dullahan -------- Item needed for battle: Cat Heart count before going in portal: 25-40, depending on how many you used against wolf. Importance of item: helpful Strategy: Dodging will keep you alive in this battle. The only times you can safely attack with the doves is if he jump-attacks and lands on a platform, or if he sends the skull flying at you. When he does the ice attack, stay just far enough not to get damaged, then one or two cats at him. If needed, double jump first to avoid having the cat collide with the platforms. To dodge the ceiling debris, stand under a platform. To dodge the desperation skull fireballs, simply get on either highest platform and jump. 5 Death -------- Item needed for battle: Bird Heart count before going in portal: 25-50 Importance of item: helpful Strategy: There is a cat item candle on the middle-right that you should strike first if you are low on hearts. Now, there are two parts to this battle. Start off by attacking normally as soon as you walk in the portal to hit Death once. The way I generally defeat him is to stand on either left or right platform, and attack towards the edge of the boat, with Death floating on the side towards the end of the screen. He'll eventually float towards you. Attack him when you have a chance, while deflecting or dodging the scythes that appear nearby. Use the birds sparingly to damage Death when he floats above you, or to deflect the flying scythes. After about 50% of his health is gone, he will fly to the background. At this time, walk or slide (hold down and press attack) all the way to the left edge. Then, each time you hear the sound of Death attacking, slide. Do not slide twice too quickly, or you will get stuck at the other end. (Note that unlike the normal boss battle, there's an invisible wall here). Wait until you hear the sound, then slide. You should be able to dodge the 5 skulls without trouble. Then, stand just about underneath the left-hand platform. Death should appear somewhere to your right. Attack him normally once or twice. He will flinch backwards. Then, WAIT for him to swing twice, then approach and attack again. Immediately back off after he gets hit. The "charge time" for his attack is very short, making the attack rather difficult to dodge. You should have enough time to dodge the flying scythe as you back off. Note that any time he finds himself too far away from the center of the ship (a little past the platform towards either end), he will quickly jump-spin back to the center. First, back off far enough. After he lands in the center, WAIT for him to swing his weapon, then approach and attack. You could attack him as soon as he lands in the center if you position yourself in advance and time your attack. If you find yourself in low health, summon the special, but do attempt to defeat Death with at least 22 hearts left. The Dragon special greatly simplifies the next battle. 6 Shaft -------- Item needed for battle: Dragon Heart count before going in portal: At least 50 Importance of item: helpful Strategy: Before going through the portal, go all the way to the top right to collect the 5 hearts from the bird item candle, then collect the dragon item all the way to the left. If you want a simple battle, summon the dragon special as soon as the battle starts. Shaft should be dead, or very close to dead. To defeat Shaft normally, attack quickly while keeping an eye on the balls. The balls of fire can be deflected with the regular attack. Slide towards Shaft every time he teleports to save time. If you wish to play it safe, jump on the high platforms when he attacks with balls of lightning. Note that you don't get hurt by touching the plain green colored balls (until the very end when they come crashing down at the floor), or by touching the lightning balls by themselves. 7 L. Vampire -------- Item needed for battle: Dragon Heart count before going in portal: 50+ Importance of item: slightly helpful Strategy: First, collect the 5 hearts from the rightmost item candle, then collect the rest and walk into the portal. When the battle begins, L. Vampire will be on the left side, protected by the bat shield. Position yourself so that the doves just barely touch her. Keep jumping and attacking. The bat shield will eventually dissipate, and you should get two or three hits in. The bats will fly away. Stop attacking and stand still exactly in the center of the screen (just line up with the cross/circles in the background), and just wait until the bats go away. I couldn't attack L. Vampire without having to get too close and getting hit by the bats when I jumped. Next, attack while the bat shield reforms. L. Vampire will fly to the right side of the screen. Re-align yourself, and attack a couple more times. Then, be prepared to slide away, as the next bat attack will home in towards you immediately after the bats fly off the top of the screen. The third attack seems unpredictable to me. It might be the bat spiral (in this case, stand in the center, just a bit closer to L. Vampire's side), or a three-leafed-shape bat attack (in this case, back off all the way to the other side of the screen). The homing attack might show up again, so you have to be prepared for anything. If you have over 50 hearts, summon the special as soon as you see the bat shield dissipating. While it only takes away about 50% of her health, it makes the battle a lot easier. That's it for Boss Rush Normal! Boss Rush Dash ============== Boss Order ---------- 1 Sea Serpent Music 37 2 Bone Golem Music 59 3 Dogether Dragon 81 4 Carmilla Bird 58 5 Hydra Bird 90+ 6 Shaft Dragon 99 7 Shaft's Ghost Dragon 50+ 1 Sea Serpent -------- Item needed for battle: Music book Heart count before going in portal: 37 Importance of item: crucial Strategy: The battle starts off with the serpent immediately jumping out of the water and right back in. Move around to avoid getting hit. It is not really necessary to attempt to strike it. The serpent will do another similar jump again. During this time, keep moving towards the center of the screen. You don't want the serpent to pop up on the very edge of the screen. Now, keep an eye out for its third jump. As soon as you notice it coming out of the water, summon the special, and align its head with one of the notes. Try staying out of its attacking range. With proper timing (you can preempt its jump a little) the serpent will be dead from this special. Move around to dodge its desperation skeletal lunge attack. Knock back its skull with an attack for laughs. 2 Bone Golem -------- Item needed for battle: Music book Heart count before going in portal: 59 Importance of item: helpful Strategy: In its first form, simply stay out of its range while attacking normally. It's not really that helpful to use the item at this point. Next, as soon as you see the flying thing showing up on the screen, use the special. Keep the enemy in contact with a note by following it. If this form is still alive, it will return, flying leftwards, at a slightly lower height. Attack normally, and it should disintegrate soon. The next form is a mass of bones and skulls that runs back and forth on the ground like a tank. The key to victory is to first determine which way it's moving. Then, jump towards the side "behind" it, and follow it closely behind while attacking normally. The attacks will slow it down, and it should be dead before it reaches the end of the room and turns around. 3 Dogether -------- Item needed for battle: Dragon Heart count before going in portal: 81 Importance of item: crucial Strategy: First, collect the 5 hearts from the item candle on the middle-left, then collect the dragon item. Collect every other heart, and you should have 81 of them. Summon the special as soon as the battle begins; end of story. Dodge its final circling of agony and its crashing-down attack (the symbol will float above your head and Dogether will rematerialize, trying to crush you). While this isn't normally a tough battle, you might as well use the special to make things easy. 4 Carmilla -------- Item needed for battle: Bird Heart count before going in portal: 58 Importance of item: helpful Strategy: Jump around while using the bird to attack the floating skull/woman combination. After ten or so such attacks, it should be crushed. Try to avoid the lady on the bottom while doing so. After the skull is crushed, follow and attack Carmilla. She should take 3 hits to kill. 5 Hydra -------- Item needed for battle: Bird Heart count before going in portal: 90+ Importance of item: Crucial Strategy: In the first part, there's only one head to attack (the boss has two parts, and each part has its own life bar). Let the head do its attacking, which may be A) a flying green ball of who-knows-what, which you should double jump over, or B) a quick lunge towards you. The head will back off, and you should attack it as much as you can. The head will then do one of the following: A) Back up a bit and open its mouth. Run towards the left border of the water-covered area (the mini-wall will prevent you from running further) and prepare to double jump. On the second jump, jump rightwards if possible. This will set you up to attacking the head more quickly. B) Back up a bit and keep its mouth shut. Run towards the left border of the water, again, turn around and start attacking. The lunge won't reach far enough. Repeat until the first part is dead. In the second part, start off by immediately getting on the middle pillar, double jumping, and attacking the "chest" area (where the four heads meet and there's a glowing purplish thing) as fast as you can. The fire head will spit fire at you. At this point, stand close under the chest and use the special. Depending on how quickly you attacked, the Hydra should be dead, or close to dead. Attempt to kill the Hydra without using the special twice, or overusing the regular item attack. 6 Shaft -------- Item needed for battle: Dragon Heart count before going in portal: 99 (you should have at least 77). Importance of item: crucial Strategy: Use the special as soon as the battle starts. Very simple. Read the Boss Rush Normal "Shaft" section for details on how to defeat him without the special. 7 Shaft's Ghost -------- Item needed for battle: Dragon Heart count before going in portal: 50+ Importance of item: crucial Strategy: The dragon special will only take about 75% of his health, so you must attempt to reduce his health by a bit over a quarter before summoning it. Use a combination of the regular attack, and use the dragon normally once or twice if he's away from your reach. Then, summon the special and he should be dead. The main reason to avoid using the special in the beginning is that he is more likely to summon stronger beasts as his health gets low. This concludes the Boss Rush Dash! Full Boss Rush ============== A lot of repeated material here. The major difference is the Werewolf strategy, where I prefer using the music book to attack him while he's on the roof. IMPORTANT note on Dracula: I HIGHLY recommend that you practice through the normal game mode's Level 8 before attempting the Full Boss Rush. Honestly, I don't know about any cheap or reliable strategy for defeating his third form. You will need to develop skills on your own to defeat Dracula. Boss Order ---------- 1 Wyvern Turtle 33 2 Sea Serpent Music 65 3 Werewolf Music 78 4 Bone Golem Music 99 5 Minotaur Dragon 99 6 Dogether Dragon 81 7 Dullahan Cat 90 8 Carmilla Bird 90 9 Death Bird 99 10 Hydra Bird 99 11 Shaft Dragon 99 12 L. Vampire Dragon 81 13Shaft's Ghost Dragon 99 14 Dracula Dragon 76 1 Wyvern --------- Item needed for battle: Turtle (to get 5 hearts from next round's leftmost item candle) Heart count before going in portal: 33 Importance of Item: never used Strategy: Keep the wyvern within the doves' attacking range, and simply double jump repeatedly and attack it with the doves. Even if you lose, no big deal, since it's the first battle. Do NOT squander any hearts here. They are far too precious to be wasted on this puny boss. 2 Sea Serpent -------- Item needed for battle: Music book Heart count before going in portal: 65 Importance of item: crucial Strategy: The battle starts off with the serpent immediately jumping out of the water and right back in. Move around to avoid getting hit. It is not really necessary to attempt to strike it. The serpent will do another similar jump again. During this time, keep moving towards the center of the screen. You don't want the serpent to pop up on the very edge of the screen. Now, keep an eye out for its third jump. As soon as you notice it coming out of the water, summon the special, and align its head with one of the notes. Try staying out of its attacking range. With proper timing (you can preempt its jump a little) the serpent will be dead from this special. Move around to dodge its desperation skeletal lunge attack. Knock back its skull with an attack for laughs. 3 Werewolf -------- Item needed for battle: Music book Heart count before going in portal: 78 Importance of item: slightly helpful Strategy: 98% of the attacking will be done with the doves. Use the music book special only one time (to conserve hearts) if you notice him crawling on the roof. About his basic attacks: if he crouches, it means he's about to slide at you. Jump over him. He also has a flaming diagonal attack, which I'm not too sure how to dodge. Any time he is flies off the wall or ceiling at medium speed as a round-shaped fireball, he is not invincible, so attack him to get him out of that form. Attempt to avoid the wolf's final desperation attack. 4 Bone Golem -------- Item needed for battle: Music book Heart count before going in portal: 99 Importance of item: helpful Strategy: In its first form, simply stay out of its range while attacking normally. It's not really that helpful to use the item at this point. Next, as soon as you see the flying thing showing up on the screen, use the special. Keep the enemy in contact with a note by following it. If this form is still alive, it will return, flying leftwards, at a slightly lower height. Attack normally, and it should disintegrate soon. The next form is a mass of bones and skulls that runs back and forth on the ground like a tank. The key to victory is to first determine which way it's moving. Then, jump towards the side "behind" it, and follow it closely behind while attacking normally. The attacks will slow it down, and it should be dead before it reaches the end of the room and turns around. 5 Minotaur -------- Item needed for battle: Dragon Heart count before going in portal: 99 Importance of item: crucial Strategy: Use the special as soon as the battle begins. With any luck, you'll have a dead minotaur; at worst, one with a sliver of health left. Attempt to dodge his final slide-shoryuken desperation attack by double jumping over him. 6 Dogether -------- Item needed for battle: Dragon Heart count before going in portal: 81 Importance of item: slightly helpful Strategy: First, collect the 5 hearts from the item candle on the middle-right. Collect every other heart. While on the Boss Rush Dash I recommended that you use the special, you should try conserving them here for later bosses. Use the normal dragon attack up to four times if needed. The enemy attacks are: A) Green flash: Three spears fly out of his eye, one straight, two diagonally, more or less like this: / -> \ B) Red flash: clumps of fire materialize in front of the eye and spread downwards and forward. C) Blue flash: stones gather to surround the eye, more or less forming a shield. 7 Dullahan -------- Item needed for battle: Cat Heart count before going in portal: 80-99 Importance of item: helpful Strategy: Dodging will keep you alive in this battle. The only times you can safely attack with the doves is if he jump-attacks and lands on a platform, or if he sends the skull flying at you. When he does the ice attack, stay just far enough not to get damaged, then one or two cats at him. If needed, double jump first to avoid having the cat collide with the platforms. To dodge the ceiling debris, stand under a platform. To dodge the desperation skull fireballs, simply get on either highest platform and jump. 8 Carmilla -------- Item needed for battle: Bird Heart count before going in portal: 90-99 Importance of item: helpful Strategy: Jump around while using the bird to attack the floating skull/woman combination. After ten or so such attacks, it should be crushed. Try to avoid the lady on the bottom while doing so. After the skull is crushed, follow and attack Carmilla. She should take 3 hits to kill. 9 Death -------- Item needed for battle: Bird Heart count before going in portal: 99 Importance of item: helpful Strategy: Now, there are two parts to this battle. Start off by attacking normally as soon as you walk in the portal to hit Death once. The way I generally defeat him is to stand on either left or right platform, and attack towards the edge of the boat, with Death floating on the side towards the end of the screen. He'll eventually float towards you. Attack him when you have a chance, while deflecting or dodging the scythes that appear nearby. Use the birds sparingly to damage Death when he floats above you, or to deflect the flying scythes. After about 50% of his health is gone, he will fly to the background. At this time, walk or slide (hold down and press attack) all the way to the left edge. Then, each time you hear the sound of Death attacking, slide. Do not slide twice too quickly, or you will get stuck at the other end. (Note that unlike the normal boss battle, there's an invisible wall here). Wait until you hear the sound, then slide. You should be able to dodge the 5 skulls without trouble. Then, stand just about underneath the left-hand platform. Death should appear somewhere to your right. Attack him normally once or twice. He will flinch backwards. Then, WAIT for him to swing twice, then approach and attack again. Immediately back off after he gets hit. The "charge time" for his attack is very short, making the attack rather difficult to dodge. You should have enough time to dodge the flying scythe as you back off. Note that any time he finds himself too far away from the center of the ship (a little past the platform towards either end), he will quickly jump-spin back to the center. First, back off far enough. After he lands in the center, WAIT for him to swing his weapon, then approach and attack. You could attack him as soon as he lands in the center if you position yourself in advance and time your attack. If you find yourself in low health, summon the special, but do attempt to defeat Death with at least 70 hearts left. 10 Hydra -------- Item needed for battle: Bird Heart count before going in portal: 90+ Importance of item: Crucial Strategy: In the first part, there's only one head to attack (the boss has two parts, and each part has its own life bar). Let the head do its attacking, which may be A) a flying green ball of who-knows-what, which you should double jump over, or B) a quick lunge towards you. The head will back off, and you should attack it as much as you can. The head will then do one of the following: A) Back up a bit and open its mouth. Run towards the left border of the water-covered area (the mini-wall will prevent you from running further) and prepare to double jump. On the second jump, jump rightwards if possible. This will set you up to attacking the head more quickly. B) Back up a bit and keep its mouth shut. Run towards the left border of the water, again, turn around and start attacking. The lunge won't reach far enough. Repeat until the first part is dead. In the second part, start off by immediately getting on the middle pillar, double jumping, and attacking the "chest" area (where the four heads meet and there's a glowing purplish thing) as fast as you can. The fire head will spit fire at you. At this point, stand close under the chest and use the special. Depending on how quickly you attacked, the Hydra should be dead, or close to dead. Attempt to kill the Hydra without using the special twice, or overusing the regular item attack. 11 Shaft -------- Item needed for battle: Dragon Heart count before going in portal: 99 (you should have at least 77). Importance of item: crucial Strategy: Use the special as soon as the battle starts. Very simple. Read the Boss Rush Normal "Shaft" section for details on how to defeat him without the special. 12 L. Vampire -------- Item needed for battle: Dragon Heart count before going in portal: 81 Importance of item: never used (you should save the hearts) Strategy: First, collect the 5 hearts from the rightmost item candle, then collect the rest and walk into the portal. When the battle begins, L. Vampire will be on the left side, protected by the bat shield. Position yourself so that the doves just barely touch her. Keep jumping and attacking. The bat shield will eventually dissipate, and you should get two or three hits in. The bats will fly away. Stop attacking and stand still exactly in the center of the screen (just line up with the cross/circles in the background), and just wait until the bats go away. I couldn't attack L. Vampire without having to get too close and getting hit by the bats when I jumped. Next, attack while the bat shield reforms. L. Vampire will fly to the right side of the screen. Re-align yourself, and attack a couple more times. Then, be prepared to slide away, as the next bat attack will home in towards you immediately after the bats fly off the top of the screen. The third attack seems unpredictable to me. It might be the bat spiral (in this case, stand in the center, just a bit closer to L. Vampire's side), or a three-leafed-shape bat attack (in this case, back off all the way to the other side of the screen). The homing attack might show up again, so you have to be prepared for anything. 13 Shaft's Ghost -------- Item needed for battle: Dragon Heart count before going in portal: 99 Importance of item: crucial Strategy: The dragon special will only take about 75% of his health, so you must attempt to reduce his health by a bit over a quarter before summoning it. Use a combination of the regular attack, and use the dragon normally once or twice if he's away from your reach. Then, summon the special and he should be dead. The main reason to avoid using the special in the beginning is that he is more likely to summon stronger beasts as his health gets low. 14 Dracula -------- Item needed for battle: Dragon OR Turtle (pick your strategy for the third form below) Heart count before going in portal: 76 Importance of item: crucial Strategy: The first two forms are straightforward. I HIGHLY recommend that you practice through the normal game mode's Level 8 before attempting the Full Boss Rush. Briefly speaking: First form: stand far enough that the doves will just hit Dracula's head. Attack his head twice, while watching what he does with his arms. If he pulls his arm backwards (away from you), fireballs are coming. Stand still and attack a few times. The doves will destroy the fireballs. Alternatively, attempt to jump over them. If he stretches his arm forward (towards you), two dark balls are coming. Time a double jump over them. Second form: double jump to attack his head and slide under him. Hard to explain the exact timing; just practice by playing through Level 8. Third form, Dragon strategy: while Dracula morphs, keep attacking his body for a couple of hits. His next immediate attack will be the red shower. Slide quickly underneath him and use the special. His life will be roughly halved. From here on, you're on your own. Please read SinDaemon's Boss FAQ on GameFAQs for the description of the attacks. Again, I recommend you learn the teleport positions and what attacks they foretell on your own. It's much simpler to see them yourself than trying to picture something I am writing in words. Special thanks to SneakySnake2 of the GameFAQs boards for describing the turtle strategy to me: after sitting under Dracula and waiting for the rain to stop, use the normal turtle shell to protect yourself. A few of his attacks will break your shell (the wolf attack and one of the blazing, quick, red ground attacks), but do little or no damage. Now wait until Dracula teleports in preparation for his "Bat-throwing" attack. As soon as you see this happening, break out of the shell and walk all the way over to the end of the opposite side of the screen, and start attacking normally. You should hit the stream of bats about three times. While slow and tedious, this method will almost assuredly whittle down Dracula's health to about 1/3, at which point he stops using the "Bat-throwing" attack. Then, you're on your own again, but in much better shape to defeat him. End of FAQ